Miscellaneous 01/11/2012
A recent blog about ancestors on the male side of my family reminded me that there was an interesting story to tell about the distaff side, too.......... My elder son met and married a lovely girl in the USA and, in time, I learned that (like many in America) her family has far more detailed records of their ancestors than most people on this side of the pond have of theirs. For example, insofar as my own ancestry is concerned, without delving into the various web-sites available on the internet these days, I would be hard-pressed to identify anyone on my father's side from anytime earlier than the latter part of the nineteenth century. Fortunately, my mother's ancestors in north Wales were much easier to trace; not least because they remained in the same region. Furthermore, they had occupied the same property (and an earlier building on the same site) since the eighteenth century. Now, it's not particularly unusual for a dwelling to remain in the same family for several generations because the generally accepted rules of inheritance meant that ownership passes from father to eldest son and heir. For over two hundred years, however, my mother's ancestors adopted a rather unusual system where the youngest daughter inherited the property. Instead of her leaving home when she got married, her new husband moved into the property and they continued to care for her parents for as long as they lived - at which time the new family became the owners.  This is rather well demonstrated in this photograph which was taken around 1885 and shows three generations of the family. The smallest of the little girls is my grandmother - and, with the passage of time, as the youngest daughter, she would become the matriarch. She's standing next to her father. Her mother is the lone figure to the left of the house and the elderly man in the foreground is her father. I suspect the man on the horse may be an employee of my great, great, grandfather who I believe may have been a carter. Over the years, other ancestors have included a farrier, a carpenter, and a bespoke tailor (my own grandfather). When I lived there, as a small child during WW2, I had been under the impression that the property was a farm. It was, after all, self-sufficient with a cow, a pig, several hens, some sheep and a large vegetable garden. However, although the grounds covered about the same area as two or three football pitches, it would be more accurate to call it a smallholding. Sadly, for a variety of reasons - not least the fact that the final youngest daughter (my aunt) didn't marry - the tradition came to an end a few years ago. Add Comment Miscellaneous 11/08/2011
Miscellaneous 06/11/2011
I can't recall the exact circumstances (I suspect it may have had something to do with a mutual acquaintance who had an interest in DUKWs) but, sometime last year, I met a an extremely interesting chap who had constructed a minature railway track in his back garden so that he could entertain young members of his family. In addition to laying down the track, he had also built his own rolling-stock (some of which is shown below) and, somewhat to my surprise, he was kind enough to invite me to 'drive' some of his engines.   As is often the case with resourseful people, my new acquaintance was friendly with like-minded individuals - one of whom lives quite close to where my wife and I live. In fact, we have often been intrigued by the fact that a full-sized railway signal enjoyed pride-of-place alongside his garage. What we hadn't realised, however, was that there was also a significant and very sophisticated minature railway system which extended for several hundreds yards beyond his back garden. Unlike, my original acquaintance (who restricts visitors to his 'operation' to close friends and relatives) my 'neighbour' occasionally holds 'Open Days' and, as a consequence, is keen to enlist the aid of interested people to help run the aforementioned events. So, yesterday, I was delighted to have been invited to attend a training day for 'learner' train drivers. Here's a video...... Miscellaneous 06/07/2011
For the first time in a little over a year, I ventured onto a golf course, yesterday. Putting aside the fact that I played reasonably well, what prompted me to write this blog was the fact that, when I arrived at the nineteenth hole, there was a group of golfers who seemed to be coming to the end of a joke-telling session - and I was reminded of one of my favourite golfing stories (taken from the Humour section). Two really old men decided they would go out and try to play a round of golf together. As they arrived on the first tee, one says to the other, "My eyesight isn't what it used to be. Can you watch my ball for me?". "No problem." the second man said. "I can see quite well. Go ahead and hit. " So the first old man steps up to his ball and hits a lovely drive. He turns to his buddy and says, "Did you see it?". "Sure!", says his buddy. "Where did it go?", the first man asks. The second old man thinks for a minute and says, "I can't remember. " Miscellaneous 02/24/2011
I can't remember if, around the time of the Royal Army Service Corps reunion in north Devon, last October, I mentioned that I had managed to contact one of the DUKW drivers who featured in a few of the photographs in my journal about the UK nuclear tests at Christmas Island in the fifties. Unfortunately - perhaps as a consequence of being exposed to radiation - he hadn't been enjoying very good health and wasn't able to attend the reunion. However, I was able to put him in touch with another DUKW driver with whom he had been especially pally and they had managed an occasional chat on the telephone or, perhaps, Skype. Sadly, however, he passed away shortly after the arrival of the new year and I've been led to believe his family gained great comfort from the fact that the survivor took the trouble to attend the funeral. Life, however, goes on and, yesterday, by an intriguing coincidence, whilst I was trying to show my Best Man (who I met on Christmas Island) how I used the internet to trace our former colleague, I managed to contact another one who also featured in some of the photographs in the aforementioned journal. I even managed to find his 'phone number; so, we were able to chat for a while and exchange contact details - which, as soon as I've completed this blog, I'll forward to the rest of our little group. Interestingly, my Best Man and our 'new' old friend live quite close to each other and they're making plans to meet up for a noggin - or two. Rather more interestingly, it emerged that they had previously met at a school parents' meeting over thirty years ago - a situation which illustrates the fact that maintaining old acquaintances seems more important as time passes; something which younger readers might want to 'take on board'. Miscellaneous 02/20/2011
Over the past year, or two, I've recorded the efforts we've made to provide the local bird population with an adequate food supply during (by south of England standards) the quite severe weather conditions we've experienced during recent winters. As a consequence we've been rewarded by a succession of visitors outside (somewhat appropriately) our kitchen window - and, as I've also mentioned, those visitors haven't only been of the avian variety. For example, local foxes have become interested and - more excitingly - it appears that we've been added to the route march which a neighbouring badger family undertake each night. Not surprisingly, catching these nocturnal visitors on camera isn't that easy; however, daytime visits aren't as difficult - and, here's one of them.........  Even more intriguingly, during this visit from a local squirrel (see above), he/she was joined by one of a number of pheasants who inhabit our woodland......  Miscellaneous 02/17/2011
This small collection of figures has been on a shelf in the smallest room in our house for almost as long as I can remember and not one single person has remarked on their significance - and it took me ages to find a boat in the right colour....... ................Philistines!  Miscellameous 01/29/2011
Not for the first time and, quite probably, not for the last, I woke up in the early hours of the morning and have been unable to go back to sleep - and, as I've mentioned before, one of the advantages of retirement is being able to turn on my lap-top in the knowledge that I don't have to get up for work. That said, it happens to be a Sunday; so, I wouldn't have to get up for work anyhow. Furthermore it's just occurred to me that I do want to get up today to watch Murray in the Oz tennis final at 8.00 am. Anyway, what has been occupying mind mind for the past couple of hours are words. Some people count sheep - but, I often resort to words. Unfortunately, slumber didn't arrive on this occasion. However, It's no secret that I like words; and, since the English language is so complicated, I don't mind it being cited that, to a certain extent, they excite me and, with the benefit of hindsight, one of the advantages of having a web-site is being able to play around with them. Now, one of the interesting things about English is that it isn't necessary to be too bright to make fun of it. When they speak, Lord John Prescott and Ian Wright, the former footballer, for example, often give it the last rites without even knowing it. However, when they write it (albeit sometimes with the help of ghost-writers) they seem to do alright. For my part, perhaps because Welsh was my first language, I used to find English grammar quite a challenge at school and I admire anyone from overseas who can recognise the idioscyncrasies involved with words such as bow and bough, for example, or toe and tow, rough, tough, tough, touch, taught and taut and so on. If you can master them, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a piece of cake. Miscellaneous 12/14/2010
Ever since I started this web-site, I've been discovering new 'gimmicks' which WEEBLY provide (absolutely free, by the way). So, for no other reason than I've only just found out that it was possible, I've spent some time, recently, playing around at creating a new picture for each of the title pages. One of the consequences of these experiments has been that I've been changing my avatar picture quite often - and, since this tends to irritate me when others do it, an apology is in order - and I'm reverting to the original one. Having said that, I might change the pictures on the aforementioned title pages from time to time - but, I see no reason to abandon the original avatar picture again (the significance of which is that it is of a bus which is almost identical to the one in which I took my PSV test in 1961). Interestingly, the point I made in the last blog was somewhat superfluous because it seems that, although the steam engine was quite old, the passenger saloon may have been a more modern addition. The one at the head of this page now, however, seems to be a genuine vintage model - entirely appropriate to represent someone of my advanced years. Miscellaneous 12/13/2010
As I grow older, it seems appropriate that the omnibus in my avatar picture should age too.  |
